I am using a Seagate Barracuda SATA 160GB drive. I am experiencing random crashing while using Windows particularly during hard-drive intensive tasks such as installing files to disk from a CD.

I installed the drive as per the user manual instructions and installed the Silicon SATA RAID driver from the shuttle website. When XP locks up, everything is disabled or ceases to function correctly bar the mouse cursor (cannot even do ctrl - alt - del).

Initially realising that this was a hard drive related problem I downloaded Seagate's SEATOOLS and booted these in dos. SEATOOLS checked the drive and reported that the drive was fine, but that the file system was corrupt. I thus installed Windows 2000 Pro using the same SATA RAID driver, ran SEATOOLS again and it informed me that the file system was corrupt.

So it seems that every time I format using Windows XP or Windows 2000 and using the SATA RAID driver from shuttle's site, I end up with a corrupt file system resulting in random crashes within windows.

I was just beginning to enjoy using the Athlon 64 3200+ I put in the SN85G4v2, when the above problems completely ruined the excitement of the upgrade. I am a first time XPC user and this experience has totally ruined my confidence in the XPC range.

Peter
Disillusioned first time shuttle xpc user.

Last edited by webchap8 on Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Many things could corrupt your file system on a fresh install, like incompatable RAM, a bad SATA controller on the motherboard, a bad SATA cable, etc. Don't blame the Shuttle, we can help you narrow this problem down.

Are all your parts in this PC new? Did you move anything (like the RAM) over from a previous PC? Let's get some more details and figure it out.

Writing off the "whole XPC range" just because of this problem is a bit like never again flying on a Boeing simply because Southwest Airlines lost your luggage.

It's possible you have a bad mobo/system. It happens, occasionally. But it's also possible something else is wrong. As emkubed said, you need to narrow down the problem.

Get http://memtest86.com and run several passes. If you get even a single error, there's a problem. If you're using more than one stick of RAM, take it down to one and then the other to determine which one is at fault. Also try different RAM slots -- sometimes that can be the problem.

Try a different SATA cable. The pre-routed ones are nice, but it's possible it got kinked while the box was being built. Double-check the connections: some people have reported their SATA cables are prone to working themselves loose.

Try a different optical drive and cable. It's possible Windows is getting corrupted as it gets read off the CD.

Have you looked at your CPU temps? Particularly right after an install or running memtest? Small cases tend to overheat very easily, and if you didn't put the heatsink on perfectly you could have a problem there.

Last edited by UberGerbil on Sun Sep 12, 2004 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I tested the memory module using the SEATOOLS memory check feature. I then checked the memory with an old floppy-disk based diagnostic utility my father used to use over 10 years ago when he owned a company building PCs. The RAM passed all checks.

My SATA cable came with the XPC accessories and i installed it in position securely.

THe NEC 2510 DVD-RW drive windows is being read from is brand new (as are all the components) and so are the cables.

The memory test in the SEATOOLS reported that the memory was fine although I am aware that this is not a thorough test. The memory is brand new out of the box.

I am pretty sure that this is not a memory issue as the crashes happen only occasionally when the system is using the hard drive heavily. Its so bad that I am afraid to run too many hard drive intensive tasks.

For example I run the benchmark tests in Sisoft Sandra. The CPU one runs fine, the RAM test also runs fine, then it gets to the file system benchmark and Sisoft Sandra crashed.

I did manage to install a game called "Call Of Duty" which ran fine and did not crash - which suggests to me that the RAM is fine.

I repeat that a system crash tends to occur when I am extracting a large file, or installing a game, or copying about 15GB over the network to my hard drive.

I repeat that my hard drive manufacturer's SEATOOLS report that the file system is corrupt both when I have installed Windows XP and then formatted again and tried Windows 2000 Pro.

Using a SATA drive and this Shuttle mainboard a format and non-corrupt file system creation IS NOT POSSIBLE.

Listen, everyone here is trying to give you advice as to a solution for your problem, but everytime you meet it with resistance. Remember, we are here to try to help you out. With that said...

Memory most certainly can cause the file allocation table to become currupt since the SATA driver loads in protected memory space, and faulty memory will cause the driver to currupt any data transferred since it will generate sense conditions during transfer. Your issue could also be something as simple as a faulty SATA cable.

I know you stated everything is new, but that doesn't mean that things cannot be faulty out of the box. Do the simple troubleshooting steps. Strip the unit down to the bare components needed to get the box up and running and work with each component on a case per case basis. Can you install on an IDE drive without issue? Does your SATA drive have the same issue on another machine? Does memtest check out clean? what happens if you replace the SATA cable? Swap ports? Reset the CMOS via jumper? If after all this you still have issues then I'd suggest either an RMA for the motherboard in the Shuttle, or, take it back and have the place you purchased your items from swap the SN85 out.

I phoned Seagate Technical support and they told me that there have been issues with the Silicon Image 3512a RAID 0/1 controller and their SATA drives. I was told that an engineer would phone me back in 4 hours as they were in the USA.

Hmm...if Seagate is having problems with the 3512, it looks like it's Seagate's or Silicon Image's fault, rather than Shuttle's. How old is the hard drive? Maybe if you bought it from somewhere with a liberal return policy, you could get a maxtor or WD?

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

Please ignore all above postings by myself. After a lot of hassle from my system I have now diagnosed this to be a driver issue.

I was focusing on the hard drive due to the corrupt file system message from SEATOOLS which I have been told by seagate is meaningless under a SATA setup.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the SB Audigy Player driver from the Creative website several times, and each time the driver is installed I can get the system to crash easily by using a number of hard-drive intensive applications. When I uninstall the driver I find it impossible to crash the machine doing this.

Does anyone know what I should do in this case? Should I just use the onboard audio? - It wont be even close to the quality of the Audigy audio.